Suffolk County Community College (SCCC), in partnership with Festo Corp., recently unveiled the Advanced Mechatronics Training Center in Brentwood, N.Y. The center features high-tech manufacturing and process control equipment to increase its training capabilities. The college hopes to create greater awareness among students, school systems, industry leaders, workforce development agencies, economic development agencies and government officials about the numerous career paths available in manufacturing.

As part of its mission to provide affordable higher education and workforce development opportunities, SCCC applied for and received a three-year, $2.4 million federal grant from the United States Department of Labor Employment & Training Administration to train workers in advanced manufacturing.

The school created a new curriculum – Mechatronics – that will provide the manufacturing workforce with highly developed skills to increase their employment opportunities.

More than 200 workers from 38 manufacturing companies have enrolled in the college’s Mechatronics certificate program since last spring. The college also plans to offer an associate degree program in the field next fall.

The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that more than 10 million skilled factory jobs will go unfilled by the year 2020. High-tech, specialized training programs like this one are essential to training students for the current workforce, and for the future.

Metallica’s All Within My Hands Foundation (AWMH) is launching the Metallica Scholars Initiative as a way to “give back to the communities that supported the band” during its 2017-2019 U.S. “WorldWired” tour.

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